MODERN ETHICS: CHARACTERISTICS AND REPRESENTATIVES - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The modern ethics is the philosophical discipline through which the moral, duty, happiness, virtue and what is right or wrong in human behavior is studied. It is represented by various philosophers located temporarily from the early 17th century to the late 19th century.

When reference is made to modern ethics, it is not from a point of view of philosophical concepts, but from a temporal point of view, since in those three centuries there were many philosophical theories that came to light.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Some of the most important currents are: the materialist of Hobbes, the empiricism of Hume, the deontological or duty ethics with Immanuel Kant, the utilitarian with Bentham and Mill and the nihilist of Nietzsche.

However, one cannot fail to mention within modern ethics Safstesbury, initiator of the school of moral sense, nor the philosophers of intuitionist tendency: Ralph Cudworth, Henry More and Samuel Clarke, as well as Richard Price, Thomas Reid and Henry Sidgwich.

The importance of the Dutch Jewish philosopher Benedict de Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz cannot be ignored either. In addition, it is important to remember two figures whose philosophical development had a great later repercussion: the French Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the German Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

characteristics

The fact that there are so many theories of modern ethics makes it impossible to enumerate characteristics that define them all. However, certain issues that have been addressed by most of the philosophers of this time can be specified:

-Concern to delimit good and evil in man and in society.

-Opposition or concordance between desire and duty, and desire and happiness.

-Choice of the ethical description based on reason or feeling.

-Good of the individual and social good.

-Man as a means or an end.

Representatives

Some of the most prominent philosophers of modern ethics are the following:

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

This British-born philosopher was an enthusiast for the New Science represented by Bacon and Galileo. For him, both evil and good are related to the predilections and desires of the individual because there is no objective goodness.

For this reason, there is no general good, since the individual fundamentally seeks to satisfy his desires, to preserve himself against an anarchic nature.

The fact that each individual satisfies their desires generates conflict, and so that this does not end in war, a social contract must be established.

Through this contract, power is transferred to a political authority called "sovereign" or "Leviathan", to enforce the provisions. His power must be sufficient to keep the peace and punish those who do not respect him.

Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

Bishop of the Church of England, he was commissioned to develop Shaftesbury's theory. He stated that happiness appears as a by-product when desires are satisfied for anything other than happiness itself.

Thus, whoever has happiness finally does not find it. On the other hand, if you have goals somewhere other than happiness, it is more likely that you will achieve it.

On the other hand, Butler also introduces the concept of conscience as an independent source of moral reasoning.

Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746)

Together with David Hume, Hutcheson developed the school of moral sense that had begun with Shaftesbury.

Hutcheson argued that moral judgment cannot be based on reason; that is why it cannot rely on whether an action is kind or unpleasant to someone's moral sense.

He thus conceives that it is disinterested benevolence that gives foundation to the moral sense. From there he declares a principle that will later be taken up by the utilitarians: "This action is the best because it provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people."

David Hume (1711-1776)

Continuing the work of Shaftesbury and Hutcheson, he proposed an ethical description based on feeling rather than reason. Thus, reason is and must be the slave of passions, and must only serve and obey them.

Since morality is linked to action and reason is motivationally static, Hume deduces that morality must be a matter of feeling, rather than reason.

Likewise, it emphasizes the emotion of sympathy, which is what allows someone's well-being to be a cause for concern for others.

Immanuel Kant (1711-1776)

Kant raises "good will" as the only unconditional good, which in all circumstances is considered the only good thing, in addition to being the one that guides towards the categorical imperative.

This categorical imperative is the highest good of morality and from which all moral duties derive. In such a way that it orders that the person must act only based on principles that can be universalized. That is, principles that all people or rational agents, as Kant calls them, could adopt.

It is through this categorical imperative that Kant enunciates the "formula of humanity." In accordance with this, one must act treating oneself and other people as an end, never as a means.

As each human being is an end in himself, he has an absolute, incomparable, objective and fundamental value; he calls this value dignity.

Consequently, everyone is respected because they have dignity, and this is done through treating them as an end in themselves; that is, recognizing it and causing it to be recognized in its essential value.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

This English economist and philosopher is considered the founder of modern utilitarianism. His thinking starts from the fact that man is under two masters that nature has given him: pleasure and pain. Thus, everything that seems good is either pleasant or is believed to avoid pain.

It is from there that Bentham argues that the terms "correct" and "incorrect" are significant if they are used according to the utilitarian principle. So, what increases the net surplus of pleasure over pain is correct; on the contrary, what diminishes it is the wrong thing.

Regarding the consequences of an action in front of others, he argues that the pains and pleasures for all those who are affected by the action must be taken into account. This must be done on an equal footing, no one above no one.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

While Bentham considered that the pleasures were comparable, for Mill some are superior and others are inferior.

So the higher pleasures have great value and are desirable; These include imagination and appreciating beauty. The lower pleasures are those of the body or simple sensations.

With regard to honesty, fairness, truthfulness and moral rules, he believes that utilitarians should not calculate before each action if said action maximizes utility.

On the contrary, they should be guided by analyzing whether said action is part of a general principle, and whether adherence to this principle promotes increased happiness.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

This German poet, philologist and philosopher criticizes the conventional moral code because it postulates a slave morality that is linked to the Judeo-Christian code of morality.

For him, Christian ethics considers poverty, humility, meekness and self-sacrifice as a virtue. That is why he considers it an ethic of the oppressed and weak who hate and are afraid of strength and self-assertion.

The fact of transforming that resentment into concepts of morality is what has led to the weakening of human life.

That is the reason why he considered that traditional religion was over, but instead proposed the greatness of the soul, not as a Christian virtue, but as one that includes nobility and pride in personal achievement.

It is through this reevaluation of all values ​​that he proposes the ideal of the "superman." This is a person who can overcome the limitations of ordinary morality by helping himself by his personal will to power.

References

1. Cavalier, Robert (2002). Part I History of Ethics in Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy. Recovered from caee.phil.cmu.edu.
2. Darwall, Stephen. History of Modern Ethics. Department of Philosophy. Yale University. New Haven. USES. campuspress.yale.edu.
3. Fiala, Andrew (2006). The Vanity of Temporal Things: Hegel and the Ethics of War. Studies in the History of Ethics. historyofethics.org.
4. Gill, Christopher (2005). Virtue, Norms, and Objectivity: Issues in Ancient and Modern Ethics. Oxford Clarendon Press.
5. Miller, Richard B. (1996). Casuistry and Modern Ethics. A Poetics of Practical Reasoning. The University of Chicago Press. USES.
6. Nelson, Daniel Marck (1992). The Priority of Prudence: Virtue and Natural Law in Thonas Aquinas and the Implications for Modern Ethics. University Park. Pennsylvania State University Press. USES.
7. New World Encyclopedia. History of Ethics. newworldencyclopedia.org.
8. Singer, Peter (2009). Ancient Civilizations to the end of the 19 ^th century.The History of Western ethics in Ethics. Encyclopaedia Britannica.